Dance like no one's watching

This has got to be THE best "switch off your handphone" reminder I’ve ever seen in the cinema!

Unfortunately, you need to understand Chinese to get the pun in the punchline. Else, you’ll only enjoy the slapstick humour.  Heh.

Ok… so I’m a WordPress + Php functions idiot.  I have no idea how all these codes work.  All I know is how to play about with the features as provided for in my yahoo domain server and get the blog to post the stuff I write.

I have no idea why my WordPress version isn’t automatically upgraded even though I set it to be auto-upgraded.  My WP is still stuck at ver 2.0.2 and based on what I’ve read so far, using a web FTP server to upload all the files, plus all the extra time I’ll need to "trial and error" my way through, it’s going to take me AGES to upgrade everything properly.

While going through the notes however, I came across this "secret key" thing that should help strengthen the blog.  Here’s what I found (and added)…

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Add the SECRET_KEY definition to wp-config.php

If there is not a SECRET_KEY define statement in your wp-config.php file, add one. Beginning with Version 2.5, a SECRET_KEY for salting (strengthening) user passwords was added to the wp-config.php file. To improve the chances your user passwords are not ‘hacked’ here’s an example of the line to add to your wp-config.php file:

define('SECRET_KEY', 'RF63k93hb9shj3klvbn37sjd9a9n"'); // Change this to a unique phrase.

It is most important to change the default SECRET_KEY value to something other than ‘put your unique phrase here’. Visit the WordPress secret key generation site to get a SECRET_KEY generated for you.

Released with Version 2.5, this new, optional entry, called SECRET_KEY, causes better encryption of information stored in the user’s cookies. The secret key is a unique phrase.

// Change SECRET_KEY to a unique phrase.  You won't have to remember it later,
// so make it long and complicated.  You can visit https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm
// to get a phrase generated for you, or just make something up.
define('SECRET_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here'); // Change this to a unique phrase.

Here’s a detailed explanation on the wp-hackers email list from Mark Jaquith in response to the question, "What is the SECRET_KEY for?"

It is a hashing salt that is not readable through the database. "And what is a salt?" A salt is something that adds randomness to a hash input and makes it much harder to crack. For example:

In these examples, consider that the password is "test", but that the cracker does not know this (indeed, this is what he’s trying to determine). And yes, I’m glossing over some stuff, but this is the simplistic explanation.

Easy to crack: md5(‘test’);

Since ‘test’ is a short dictionary word, crackers who have the output hash can easily use rainbow tables (dictionary lookup table) to crack that password in seconds, or minutes.

Harder to crack: md5(‘test’ . $known_salt);

In this case, the cracker has to generate a new rainbow table that adds the $known_salt value to their table’s hashes. This slows them down.

Even harder to crack: md5(‘test’ . $unknown_salt);

In this case, they don’t know the salt. And since a good salt is something very random, like "888a7da62429ba6ad3cb3c76a09641fc" — they can’t use rainbow tables to help them. They have to just "brute force" their way through all the possible combinations. This is a huge hurdle. Something that might take 10 minutes before could now take years.

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Really hope this stops any backdoor entry into my blog by hackers.  Sigh.  🙁

Oh dear… something’s wrong with either Windows’ Live Writer or my blog’s yahoo server ‘cos I can’t seem to post anything via Live Writer but yet I can post via my blog’s website? 🙁

What the heck is “parse error”???

There’s this gal, Whisperer, in office whom we (my clique) don’t really like because she can be pretty pretentious and hypocritical. What bugs me the most is that she can on one hand sing Christian songs out loud and talk extremely loudly about church stuff and yet backstab Upsize and Bigmac by complaining to our Managing Director that they use the F-word in office.

Once, a colleague jokingly called another colleague “bitch” and Whisperer turned to look at us and went , “*Gasp* Did u just use the ‘b-word’?”. I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in disbelief. I mean, we were really obviously just joking around. U could say the word “bitch” was more like a term of endearment but it offended Whisperer’s sensitivities nonetheless.

I get really self-righteous about people like Whisperer. I get annoyed that she has this “holier than thou” attitude. I often think to myself – if she was really that holy, shouldn’t she talk to Bigmac or Upsize on a one to one basis and tell them that she’s not comfortable with them using the occasional F-word in office? Isn’t that the Christ-like way of doing things rather than go straight to our MD to lodge a complaint?

That said, whenever I get annoyed and start feeling all self-righteous, I’m also reminded that my judgmental mindset isn’t any better than Whisperer’s “pretentious” ways. Sigh. On Sunday, my conscience was pricked when just before we broke bread for the Lord’s Supper, I saw a person that I feel extremely resentful towards and there was no peace in my heart. How do I take part in the Holy Communion when I feel resentment against a sister in Christ? Even if I deem that sister to have done me great wrong before, I need to learn to forgive, just as I ask to be forgiven.

So it isn’t Whisperer that needs to get rid of her “holier than thou” attitude. It’s me who needs to get rid of my self-righteous attitude. Much easier said than done, unfortunately.

Ok, so my title exaggerated a little but I liked the alliteration.  Haha.  Was in the bathroom just now when I heard a persistent fluttering of wings against the insect screen on my bathroom window.  Saw a "teenage" cockroach on the screen.  Real foolhardy roach.  I had time to finish doing my business, wash my hands and take the insecticide (I recommend odourless Shieldtox) from outside the bathroom and sprayed at the roach.  It dropped away from the insect screen pretty fast.  Thank goodness for the insect screen else I think I would’ve freaked out if the roach flew into the bathroom!

After I showered, etc, I was going to go outside my bedroom to get a cup of water when the action of opening my bedroom door seemed to cause it to scratch something against the floor.  Good grief!  It was another small roach.  I guess I semi-paralysed it ‘cos it was dragged along in a arc-shape as I opened the door.  However, as I was holding too many things in my hands, I didn’t have the time to grab rough paper to kill the roach and it managed to escape under my wardrobe.

Credit goes to Shieldtox again!  I sprayed the entire area below my wardrobe with it and after 5min, the darn roach came crawling out.  *Piak*.  For once I felt happy to hold a Singtel bill in my hand.

Zounds managed to contact his friend who had his wedding at Hyatt end of last year.  His friend confirmed that he only paid a $4k deposit and there was no 50% pre-dinner instalment nonsense.  Zounds suggests that I call his friend’s coordinator instead.  Darn.  Now I’m not sure if I should:

1) Call the more experienced staff (aka "Hansem") that was supervising Brilliance and ask him to take over because I do not wish to deal with people who blind me with their stupidity, or

2) Call the other coordinator that served Zound’s friend.

The plus point about contacting Hansem is that he was copied in on our email exchange with Brilliance and thus should be aware of what has been promised to us.

The downside is – what if he was the sly one pulling the strings and getting Brilliance to squeeze Iceman and I into committing to a lousy package?

How how how?

I’m really kind of pissed off now.  Iceman and I took a look at Swissotel Merchant Court just now and we concluded that our preference would be to go with Hyatt.  However, 3 things that the banquet manager at Hyatt (Ms. Brilliance) said / did is making my blood boil. 

Firstly, she told Iceman and I that she has blocked the dates we want and the deadline is 13 June 2008.  This deadline then shifted for no reason to 9 June 2008, but I got it changed to 10 June 2008. 

Secondly, Brilliance told me today that to secure our booking tomorrow, we need to pay $5k deposit, followed by 50% of the outstanding balance 1 month before the wedding dinner, and the rest the night of the dinner.

I felt that this was strange because no other hotel has any requirement on payment to be made 1 month before the dinner.  I did a check with 4 other friends and confirmed that this is unheard of.

Thirdly, Brilliance told us previously that when we confirm the booking with Hyatt, she will prepare the documents required for us to sign.  During our tele-conversation this afternoon, I asked Brilliance to prepare the said contract.  However, 2 minutes after we ended the call, Brilliance called me to say that there’s nothing to prepare since we negotiated the terms of the contract over email and thus everything has been captured.

I told Brilliance frankly that I’m not sure what is the norm when it comes to booking a wedding dinner venue but if this is the norm, then ok.  However, having done a check with friends, it seems that this is absurd because w/o a contract, how will we verify what the hotel has agreed to provide?  Moreover, my concern is that if Brilliance resigns or gets terminated (given how stupid she appears to be), will Hyatt honour email exchange with an ex-staff?  Email exchange, while providing some form of "evidence", is not an enforceable contract. 

So now I’m thoroughly annoyed with Brilliance, who I suspect is a really really new staff.  That’s probably why there was a more experienced staff supervising her presentation to us last Tue.

I must say she spoke eloquently and has pretty decent English.  Sadly, her "brilliance" blinds me. 

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P.S. Should I call Hyatt’s main line and ask for the more experienced staff to serve us?

Iceman and I will probably be going with Hyatt for our wedding dinner in Singapore because the brand name is good and they have managed to accommodate most of the requests we put forth. The name of the banquet manager we’ve been dealing with has a very close meaning to “Brilliance” (as in shining).

Anyway, Hyatt has agreed to provide 1 complimentary bottle of wine for every confirmed table at the dinner. Iceman and I requested that assuming we had 30 tables, we want the 30 bottles of wine to be split into 15 bottles of red and 15 bottles of white. “Brilliance” agreed that it could be done. In her reply, she said,

“Not a problem for the wine to be split into 15 white & 15 red. Just let us know nearer the date which table should have white and which should have red and we will set accordingly.”

Once I read the email, I was like DUH!?!?!? I couldn’t help it. I mean, won’t Hyatt just prepare 15 bottles of white wine and 15 bottles of red wine, and the waiters will serve guests both white and red regardless of the table they are from, till the wines run out?

Sigh. Obviously, her name may mean “Brilliance” but she is certainly not very “brilliant”.

I think finding the right person is akin to finding that glass slipper that fits, like how the prince found Cinderella.  Another description for it would be like wearing that person’s ring and having the ring fit perfectly.

Was having a chat with a church friend recently when she brought up – hadn’t I considered marriage with my ex-bf before?  I told her that he considered it.  I didn’t.  Yes, I’ve mentioned before that the ex wanted to settle down.  However, anyone who listened carefully would have realised that I always said that was what he wanted.  I never said it was something I agreed to or wanted.  If anything, I felt stifled by his constant badgering to settle down.

I’m not one who will commit to something without careful thought – be it agreeing to something or disagreeing, I will always take my time to think about things carefully before I give a commitment.  Just because I don’t say "no" to someone’s persistent planning doesn’t mean I agree to the plan. 

The ex and I once bought "couple rings" from HK before.  Truth be told, I used to like the idea of having a "couple ring".  However, when we did buy them eventually, I felt there was nothing special about it.  I chose the design of the rings… and it fit sort of ok when I was trying it on.  But once I started wearing it, the ring often felt too tight and it gave me a rash.  It was certainly symbolic of how I felt about the relationship – stifling.  I don’t even want to go into what a pain the rash was…

Anyway, I love the engagement ring Iceman gave me.   It fits perfectly.  Definitely not too tight and the size 5 probably won’t fit on anyone else’s ring finger but mine.  Haha.  I suppose the song Better Together would capture how I feel pretty well.  (Now if only darn Singtel would stop ignoring my repeated "Tune Request" and include this song as part of its Colour-Me-Tones database!)

Am thinking of using this song in 1 of the 2 photo montages I hope to have at the wedding dinner.  Remember you heard it here first!  So in the many weddings that will happen from now till August 2009, if someone else uses this song too, I didn’t copy that person!  Heh.  Am a little sore that my cousin wants to wear a cheongsam for her wedding in May 2009… ‘cos people (relatives) will think that I copied her… when I’ve ALWAYS intended to wear a cheongsam at my wedding.

Shared with her about my favourite combination of engagement ring/wedding band too.  I like either an engagement ring with small diamonds like mine, matched with a plain band with perhaps a single small diamond on it, or a plain engagement ring matched with a wedding band with paved diamonds along the top half of the band (aka the "eternity design").  The reason why I didn’t go for the 2nd combination is ‘cos I already have my mom’s eternity ring so I didn’t want a wedding band the same design.  Now I’m waiting to see if she’s going to go for the 2nd combi.  Ok ok, I know I’m being paranoid and petty but hey, that’s the thing about being a single child you see.  We enjoy being unique – one of a kind (well, at least for important things that matter!)

Anyway, here’s the lyrics for the song Better Together.  🙂

There’s no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it’s so hard?
It’s not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I’ll tell you one thing, it’s always better when we’re together

Mmmm, It’s always better when we’re together
Yeah we’ll look at the stars and we’re together
Well, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah it’s always better when we’re together

And all of these moments
just might find their way into my dreams tonight,
But I know that they’ll be gone
when the morning light sings
and brings new things
for tomorrow night you see
that they’ll be gone too,
too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
into my day to day scene
I’d be under the impression
i was somewhere in between
With only two,
Just me and you,
Not so many things we got to do
or places we got to be
We’ll sit beneath the mango tree, now

Yeah It’s always better when we’re together
Mmmm, we’re somewhere in between together
Well, it’s always better when we’re together
Yeah, it’s always better when we’re together

I believe in memories
they look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
There is no, no song I could sing
and there is no combination of words I could say
but I will still tell you one thing
We’re Better together

Hmm… saw some "Triangle of Life" article by Doug Copp.  There isn’t any real hard scientific evidence that can prove beyond doubt which theory is the right one but I’m inclined to join the anti-Doug Copp camp.

Read more about it here.